Combined primary and secondary battery system.



J H. GUGLER.

COMBINED PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BATTERY SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26, 1909.

Patented Dec.20, 1910.

asssssa H 1 n L o n half and then the JULIUS H. GUGLER, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

COMBINED PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BATTERY SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 20, 1910.

Application filed November 26,1909. Serial No. 529,994.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JULIUS H. GUGLER, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have invented a Combined Primary and Secondary Battery System, of which the following is a speci- The present invention relates to a combined primary and secondary battery system and the object which I have in view is to provide means whereby a given primary battery may be made to supply a servicecircuit at double its own voltage.

Furthermore I aim to provide automatic means for its operation whereby all hand or manual attention is obviated.

My invention comprises in its general principle the use, in combination with a primary battery of given voltage, of a secondary or storage-battery of double that voltage which is in two equal halves permanently connected in series to the service-circuit, and means for alternately connecting first one other of said storage battery in circuit with the primary battery and thereby charging each half alternately. Furthermore I provide electrically oper ated means depending upon the voltage of the respective halves of said secondary batter Y for shifting the primary battery from one half to the other half when the first half is charged up to a given predetermined potential.

The nature of my invention will best be understood from the accompanying drawing which illustrates the connections and arrangen'ient of elements diagrammatically.

In this drawing a primary battery of any desirable number of cells is shown at a, and a secondary battery at I), 72 these reference-letters designating the two halves in which the battery is divided; while a repre sents a service-circuitcontaining any means for consun'ling the electric power generated, such as lamps cl and motors c.

In the connections between the primary and secondary battery lrically operated changcover-switch which may be iner-lninically constructed in various ways, that shown being merely schematic in its nature and for the purpose of clearly illustrating the operation upon a single plane. The switch-blade f of insulating material is pivoted at f and carries two pairs of contact-strips f", f, or said switchblade may be made of metal and the contactstrips insulated therefron'i. These contactis interposed an elecpalrs the four strips are adapted to join electrically in pairs of contact pieces f, f, 7'", f disposed 011 opposite sides of the blade. A lead 1 connects one pole of the battery a which we will consider for the sake of fixing ideas as the positive pole, to one of the contact-pieces and also one of the contactpieces f while another lead 2 connects'the other or negative pole of the battery a to one of the contact-pieces f and also to one of the contact-pieces f Further the positive pole of the secondary battery 7) is con nected by a. lead 3 with the other contact piece f and the negative pole thereof by a lead 4 to the other contact-piece f Finally the intermediate pole of the battery 5, that is to say the negative pole of the portion I) and the positive pole of the portion 6 is connected bya lead to the remaining contacts f and f.

A consideration of the effect of the above connections will show that when the switchblade f is in the position shown in full lines in the drawing, the primary battery a is connected in circuit with the battery-half I) so as to charge the same, while the battery half is disconnected therefrom: while. when the switch-blade f is shifted to the opposite side, shown in dotted lines in the drawing. the prin'iary battery (1 will now be connected in circuit with the battery-half to charge the same, while the primary half I) will be out of circuit. This change takes place without any interference with the service-circuit, which is constantly connected in circuit with both halves of the battery Z), L by means of leads (3 and 7.

The means which I employ for shifting the switch 7 automatically is as follows: A pair of electromagnetica'lly operated devices such as solenoids s, 8 are connected with the swilch-blade f in such a manner that when one of said devices is energized it will throw the switch-blade in one direction and when the other is ei'icrgized it will throw said switch-blade in the other direction. This is illustrated by providing the two solenoid-cores If, F, with a link connection 11, to the. switch-blade f. Now the solenoids s, s are connected up in circuit either with one of the batteries, or any other source of current. as by means of leads 8, fl and 10 in the case of the solenoid s. and the leads 10, 11 and 12 in the case of the solenoid In these connections is interposed a reiay-mvitch 1', which also may be made in many diii'ercnt forms mechanically, but is represented for the sake of illustration as having an oscillating arm 1' pivoted at w and carrying armatures 1- and r to two relay-magnets r and a 7" which are connected respectively with the two lmttery-halves b and 7) by means of leads 10 and 13 in the case of the relay 1' and leads i0 and ll in tae case of the relay r". The scillating arm r forms one element of the electric circuit to the two solenoids, and coacts with a pair of contactpieces 1' and r" in such manner that it is always in contact with one and. outof contact with the other in accordance with the is direction in which it is tilted. Now. a consideration of these connections will show that as soon as the battery-half Z1 acquires by charging a potential in excess to a predetermined amount of the potential of the battery-halt 7%, then the strength of the relaymagnet i will overcome that of the relay magnet r" and tilt the arm 1" in the opposite direction to that shown in the drawing, whereby the solenoid e is energized and the solenoid disconnected; and this in turn will act to throw over the switch-blade f in the manner previously described, so as to disconnect the battery-halt Z) from the primary battery I! and connect the batteryhalt o in circuit therewith. This new state of things will then continue until, by con tinued charging or draft of current from the secondary battery, the potential of the battery-halt o rises to a given amount. above that of the battery hali' F), when the strength ot' the relay-magnet w will overcome that of the relay-magnet and bring back the arm r again to its position shown in the drawing; thus disconnecting the battery-half 71 from the primary battery and connecting the battery-half Z, therewith. Thus the charging of the two battery-halves will alternate, each being successively charged, and it is to be particularly noted that the arrangement is such as to keep the two halves evenly balanced and equally charged at all times, no matter what may happen to the battery itself such as may be produced by detective cells and the like. which would tend to reduce the potential of one half below that of the other. it is to be noted further that the excess of potential which one batterythrowing-over of the relay-arm 7" will de pend on the angle at which it IS tilted, because oi ourse the attraction ot that relayt l I l l l l l l armature which is nearest to its inagneti will always be gicatest for equal voltage. Therefore. such ditl'erence of potential as Win sniiice to shift the relay-arm may be determined by providing a means for increasing or decreasing the distance between said arm and the relay-magnets r and r, such as have illustrated as a set-screw 0 turning in a bearing p and screwed into the l l l l l l l l l pivot-block 9. By turning the screw 0, therefore, the pivot-block q may be raised and lowered and the difference of potential at which the relay will shift determined accordingly;

From the above description it will be readily seen that my invention may assume a variety of forms all embodying the same principles and that a great number of changes and modifications are possible in the nonessentials without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which is particularly defined in my claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A combined primary and secondary battery-system comprising, in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a service-circuit connected in series with said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect each half of said secondary battery alternately in circuit with said primary batitery, and a device operated by the ditl'erenee in potential of the two halves of the secondary battery for shifting said switch.

2. A combined primary and secondary battery-system comprising, in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a service-circuit connected in series with said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect each halt of said secondary battery alternately in circuit with said primary battery, a device adapted to throw over said switch from one side to the other alternately. and means actuated by a predetermined ditterence in potential between the two halves of the secondary battery for operating said device.

3. A combined primary and secondary batterysystem comprising, in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a service-circuit connected in series with said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect each half of said secondary battery alter- I nately in circuit with said primary battery. hall must have over the other to cause the and electromagnetic means for shifting said switch alternately from one side to the other and responsive to the electrical condition of the two halves of said secondary battery.

a. A combined primary and secondary battery-system comprising. in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a service-circuit connected in series with said secondary battery, a pair of electrical devices connected to said switch and adapted one tothrow it in one direction and'the other infthe other diconnected in series with said secondary battery. a pair of electrical devices connected to said switch and adapted one to throw it in one direction and the other in the other direction, means actuated by the difference of potential between the two halves of said secondary battery for energizing each of said electrical devices alternately, and a. relay-device adapted to energize each of said electrical devices alternately and having two relaymagnets, one of which is connected with one half of said secondary battery and the other with the other half.

6. A combined primary and secondary battery-system comprising, in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a serv ice-circuit connected in series with said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect each half of said secondary battery alternately in circuit with said primary" battery, means actiated by a given difference of potential between the two battery-halves for throwing said switch to con ncct the battery-half having the lower potenlial with said primary battery, and means for varying the difference of potential at which said first-named means will act.

7. A combined primary and secondary battery-system comprising, in combination, a secondary battery divided into equal halves, a. primary battery having a potential proper to charge one of said halves, a servicecircuit connected in series with'said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect each half of said secondary battery alternately in circuit with said primary battery, a pair of electrical devices adapted when energized to throw said switch one in one direction and the other in the other direction. means actuated by a d1ffer-' ence in potential between the two batteryhalves to energize one or other of said devices and thereby change the connection of said primary battery from the secondary battery-half having the higher potential to that having the lower potential, and means for adjusting the difference of potential at which said means will act.

8. The combination of a secondary battery divided into two equal halves, a servicecircuit connected in series with said battery, a primary battery having a potential suitable for charging one-half of said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to conncct one-half of said secondary battery in series therewith when it is thrown to one side and the other half when it is thrown to the other side a pair of electrical devices connected to said switch and one of which is adapted to throw it to one side and the other to the other side, said electrical devices being connected to a source of electricity whereby they are energized, a shifting arm interposed in the connections between the source of electricity and the respective devices and closing the circuit of one when it is in one position and of the other when it is in the opposite position, and a pair of relay-magnets connected respectively in parallel with the two battery-halves and adapted one to throw said shifting-arm to one position and the other to the other position.

9. The combination of a secondary battery divided into two equal halves, a servicecircuit connected in series with said battery, :1 primary battery having a potential suitable for charging one-half of said secondary battery, a changeover-switch adapted to connect one-half of said secondary battery in series therewith when it is thrown to one side and the other half when it is thrown to the other side, a pair of electrical devices connected to said switch and one of which is adapted to throw it to one side and the other to the other side, said electrical devices being connected to a source of electricity whereby they are'energized, a shiftmg-arm interposed in the connections between the source ofelectricity and the respective devices and. closing the circuit of one when it is in one position and of the other when it is in the opposite position, a

pair of relay-magnets connected respectively in parallel with the two battery halves and adapted one to throw said shift-ingarm to one position and the other to the other position and means for varying the distance of said shifting-arm from said relay-magnets whereby the difference of potential between the two battery-halves at which said shiftarm will be shifted is adjustably varied.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 23rd day of November, 1909, in the presence of two witnesses.

JULIUS H. GUGLER.

l-Vitnesses:

G. M. JonNAon, J. C. PETERSON. 

